How tidy is your house?

[StrawberryShortie]

Just that really!

Is your house always tidy (guest ready) or do you have a mad panic to get it all done before guests arrive?

I feel like all I ever do is tidy and mine is never guest ready

@inthekitchensink we just paid a carpet cleaner to come and clean our two fabrics sofas - they were covered in food marks and sticky finger marks. It cost about £50 for two sofas but totally worth it - they are like brand new now. And from now on the DC are banned from eating or drinking on them!

Keeping your house tidy doesn't mean you are miserable or incapable of having fun with your children. What a silly thing to suggest.

Right now it's pretty messy but it'll be reasonable in about an hour ... maybe two

@Ellapaella

It’s justification for having a messy home.

Fair enough. You have a messy Home and kids have fun. Own it. Don’t denigrate those that have a tidy home and their kids have fun.

@Weedinosaurus they're not mutually exclusive. My toddlers the happiest and most active wee thing you'll ever see. Lots of fun, toys and messy play .... I just tidy up after him.

Mine is fairly tidy. We only have one child and we have lots of storage space. We also have a cleaner so I try and keep on top of clutter. What tends to happen is that paperwork and bits and bobs accumulate on the sides and every so often I need to have a blitz and sort through piles of random tat. Floors and kitchen are usually clear. Tend to be piles of clean clothes around the place!

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Mine is always tidy providing you don't go in the dining room 😂 I put all the toys from the kids in there because I can't stand to have in in the living room. If I leave the door open and the kids go in it's like a bomb has gone off. One day I'll have a lovely dining room which we can eat in for now we use the table in the kitchen. I'd love to have a bigger house with a play room

Not saying the two are mutually exclusive just that for me tidying is not a priority and I quite like the lived in look. Pristine neatness makes me uneasy and and feel restricted. I’m much more relaxed in a slightly messier place.

@Weedinosaurus so why not say that instead of making out it's all about 'making memories' etc

Pretty tidy. I feel happy going to work knowing I've left the house looking nice.

We have someone who brings the children home from school so I have another reason to keep it looking nice - pride I suppose.

But I also went to a pretty strict boarding school where tidiness and cleanliness were drilled into us so I don't like it any other way!

I'm not really sure what " pristine neatness is" lt makes it sound something abnormal when talking about simoly clean and tidy homes.

I think as witnessed by this thread, it's unusual for people to feel relaxed in mess, but if you like a bit of that, then that's fine.

I just wouldn't recommend you think it means people don't do fun things with their kids and there is no love or laughter in their homes. Clearly there is.

I do wonder if you're being slightly defensive? Justifying a messy house? Because you don't need to justify it to strangers on the Internet. Everyone is free to live as they please.

I wouldn’t call my house ‘pristine neatness’. It’s just clean and tidy. It’s still a home.

Ours is messy. We don't particularly mind the mess, so we just don't bother tidying very often.

We've got a lot of stuff and not enough storage (I've been trying to declutter over the summer but it's a big job), we both work ft and we've got a DD who likes to get her toys out and set up an elaborate game in the living room which she then plays for a week. Since she isn't at home for long each day due to being with the cm til 5:30 and going to bed at 7:30, we tend to let her leave her toys or otherwise she doesn't get a chance to play.

We have a mad dash round to tidy up before visitors come, but even that often turns into " bung the crap in the dining room and shut the door so they can't see it!"

Very clean and tidy all of the time, wouldn’t be happy otherwise plus I love our house and we’ve worked really hard to get it how it is.

Mines tidy except in the main living room where my dog is incapable of leaving his toys in their box and they are strewn all over , wouldn’t take long to pick them up though .

Always tidy until we moved house with a not-quite 2yr-old whilst 7 months pregnant. My dream home, two years later, is actually anything but my dream home. It stresses me out and makes me want to cry every flipping day. So many boxes never got unpacked, visible bookshelves are just full of crap. I've emptied it three times but it gets filled again before I can get the books out the boxes. All I do every evening is tidy up that days mess. I hate it I hate I hate it. (It is at least clean largely thanks to my amazing cleaning lady, she rocks. It's just a mess that messes with my mind!)

I need at least 2 weeks notice if we've got guests coming as it takes at least a week to get me motivated enough to start tidying.

Mine is clean and tidy. I'm a sahm so I have the advantage of being able to potter around doing bits and bobs during the day when we're home. O have 2 dds aged 7 and 2 and they tidy any toys up and dd7 tidys her bedroom. I am organised with my washing and things. I tend to wash dry and put away. I don't iron in bulk if something needs ironing when we go to wear it I'll iron it. Takes 2 mins then rather than 2 hours once a week. My kids are not aloud to eat or drink in my sofa. They can either sit at the table or sit on their bean bags. It takes me half an hour to rub around and clean up once dds are in bed. Then once a month my mum takes dd2 out while dd7 is at school and I use that time to do a blitz and give everything a good go over. But it doesn't take ages because I do things little and often as and when it needs doing.

It's not a show home because I like to be comfortable at home but I only feel relaxed and comfortable if it's tidy and clean

Dp and I both work FT, so after picking up the kids from childcare, one of us cooks while the other works late. The dishwasher is loaded, washing done, kids hw sorted. The rest waits until the weekend, where it either gets done or not. We have piles of clutter, things like outgrown clothes in a bag waiting to go charity shops, suitcases used in August, catalogues that have come through the post. It's the clutter that does my head in tbh. Oh and the painting that I bought in March that is sitting on the floor rather than fixed to the wall.

@Passthecake30

I feel agitated just reading your post, let alone actually living it.

Mines clean and tidy but then I am home all day and have older children. If you have me 5 minutes warning before you arrived I would run the hoover round. We have wooden floors throughout and dogs. Even though I hoover daily hair tumbleweeds in the corners and it looks like I haven’t hoovered for months! I would also wipe around the toilet as I have a house full of males who sometimes miss 🤬

Mine is shocking. But I thought I was the untidiest person I could ever meet, until I had DD, who surpasses even me. The other DC are kind of moderately untidy. The place is horrendous. We all like the idea of tidiness, though.

Thinking further. Mine is not helped by the fact that, post divorce, we are failing to cram the contents of a 7-bedroom, 5 reception room house into a 3.5 bedroom, 2 reception room house. There are still unopened boxes from 3 years ago, which we use as tables.